A Stakeholder Approach to Minimizing Risks in Complex Projects

This paper presents the findings of a three-year field study into the management practices and business processes of enterprise risk management (ERM) focused on complex, technology-based new product developments. While the study examines also the effectiveness of analytical tools and techniques, it probes especially into the organizational processes and into stakeholder interactions as a means of identifying risks early in the project lifecycle and dealing with these risks collectively within the network of stakeholders. The results from this field study show that effective risk management involves a complex set of variables related to task, people, and organizational environment. The results identify specific barriers and drivers to effective risk management, and provide insight into the type of organizational environment and managerial leadership conducive to (i) identifying risks early and (ii) minimizing their impact on company performance. We show that project team leaders must be capable of more than just understanding the tools and techniques of enterprise risk management (ERM), but must also understand the infrastructure and work processes of their organizations, and deal with the complex social, technical and economic issues that determine the culture and value system of the enterprise. Further, the specific stakeholder involvement, conducive to risk reduction, will be discussed together with criteria for managerial effectiveness and critical support functions